Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
April 2, 2025 Column Father De Celles
“Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.” As we begin the New Year of Our Lord 2025, moving forward from the Christmas Seasons, we begin “Ordinary Time” in the liturgical calendar of the Church. As I’ve mentioned before, the term “ordinary” does not mean “not special,” but rather refers to the numerical ordering of the weeks of the year: “cardinal numbers” refer to quantity (i.e., one, two three, etc.), while “ordinal numbers” refer to the order of things (i.e., first, second, third…). So “Ordinary (or “ordinal”) Time” refers to the order of the weeks of the year that are not part of a special season (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Triduum, Easter). So today we celebrate the “Second Sunday” in Ordinary Time.
Although it seems to me that this is not completely correct, because last Sunday was still part of “Christmas Time.” That means this is actually the First Sunday in Ordinary Time. Hmmmm…
I think what they meant to say when they invented the term “Ordinary Time” back in the late 1960s was that this is the “Sunday of the Second Week of Ordinary Time,” since the first week of OT began last Monday.
But what do I know?
Readings of OT. At Sunday Masses during Ordinary Time we always read a specific set of readings that are laid out for the year, based on a three-year cycle of Years A, B, and C. Each of these cycles feature a semicontinuous reading of one of three Synoptic Gospels, so that in Year A we read from the Gospel of Matthew, in Year B we read Mark and in Year C we read Luke.
If you want to determine what year or cycle, we are in (A, B, or C), remember that Year C is always a year whose number is evenly divisible by the number three. This year, the Year 2025, is evenly divisible by three (2025 ÷ 3 = 675), so it is Year C.
Also, interestingly, the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time is always taken from St. John’s Gospel, picking up soon after Jesus’ Baptism. So that it’s not until next week, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, that we begin the semicontinuous reading of Luke. Note that John’s Gospel is not part of the regular rotation of semicontinuous readings (since it is very different from the other three Gospels), but rather interspersed at various times of the year.
March for Life. This Friday, January 24, please consider joining other parishioners and hundreds of thousands of other pro-life Americans gathering from all over the country to march in the 52nd annual “March for Life” on the Mall in Washington. Since the Supreme Court decision in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade, the abortion issue has largely returned to the states to decide. But this has proven to provide a whole new set of challenges to the Pro-Life movement, and the annual March helps us to refocus and renew our resolution to defend Life.
We will have three busses ready to take St. Raymond parishioners down to the Mall. Please sign-up, the sign up sheets for the bus are in the narthex of the Church.
For those of you who cannot go down to the Mall, we will have Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament all day until the Busses return.
On a personal note, for some strange reason breathing the cold air during the March always causes me to come down with a sinus infection (or worse) in the days after. This has gotten worse as I grow in “maturity,” and it has become obvious that the March isn’t in the best interest of keeping your pastor healthy for his other parish work. So I’m sorry to say that, although I’ve been to most of the Marches the last 34 years, my days of marching are, sadly, over.
Asian Fusion Dinner. Please join us on Saturday February 8, 2024, at 6:30pm in the Parish Hall for our Second Annual “Asian Fusion Dinner.” Last year we had a terrific time with lots of delicious food contributed by our talented parishioners. I hope the whole parish will come and enjoy good Catholic fellowship and a taste of the delicious foods of so many of our parishioners’ cultures. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.straymonds.org/asian-fusion-dinner.
Solemnity of St. Raymond of Peñafort. Wasn’t it beautiful to celebrate our patronal feast together at last Sunday’s Masses? And thanks to the Knights of Columbus for organizing the breakfast afterwords.
IN THE NEWS:
Catholic Relief Services. Did you see this story at Catholic World News last week about the money you donated? (Excerpt):
“Only 52% of the funds expended by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Catholic Relief Services Collection in 2023 were allotted to Catholic Relief Services, according to the collection’s 2023 annual report, which was released in early January 2025.
“The collection received $13,669,210 in contributions in 2023…Out of total expenses of $13,163,258, only 52% ($6,849,470) was allotted to Catholic Relief Services, according to the report (p. 7)…
“Much of the collection was allotted to offices of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), though some funds were directed elsewhere:
“15.4% …to the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services
“13.5% …to the USCCB’s Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church
“6.1%…to the USCCB’s Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development
“6% to CLINIC, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.
“3.8% ($500,000) was allotted to the Holy Father’s Relief Fund…
“‘The Catholic Relief Services Collection shares its name with the flagship international relief and development agency of the Catholic bishops of the United States, but it also supports four of their other initiatives,’ as well as the Holy Father’s Relief Fund, Bishop Wall [chairman] wrote in a letter for the report (pp. 2-3)….”
San Antonio. Or this story at InfoVaticana about the archdiocese I grew up in? (Excerpt, Google translation):
“Gustavo García Siller, archbishop of San Antonio…, has deleted his ‘X’ account following controversial messages spread in recent days in which he lashed out with unusual harshness against the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump.
“His controversial and polemical messages…did not go unnoticed by many Catholics who in recent days reproached the Mexican-born prelate for his belligerence against the Republican president.
“….In a fit of rage, he attacked Trump several times in less than 24 hours from his ‘X’ account….even went so far as to suggest that Trump was responsible for the massacre in New Orleans at the hands of a terrorist linked to the Islamic State.
“One of the messages that Garcia Siller launched…was to affirm that ‘we follow God and the US Constitution that follows the values of life. We are against those who think and feel that there are better ones, controlling the US Constitution. Beyond the Law? They are irrational and emotionally sick. It is sad that people follow them. What a shame! People choose to be sick!’
“The Archbishop of San Antonio also called President Trump a ‘narcissist’ and in another tweet that bordered on international outrage, wrote that ‘thank God Trump is not God. Thank God forever!’
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles